What are you shocked about? The number of parts? Printed balsa?
If you don't have one alreay, invest in a good Xacto knife, a metal ruler, a cutting mat. and a pack of #11 blades. I didn't realize how much difference a nice, fresh blade makes until I was cutting replacement stringers for my Cessna 180.
It's also good to have a sheet of replacement balsa on hand BEFORE you start cutting. So, if you lose or break a part you won't have to wait to get stock.
I am surprised at the kit itself and it's quality.
Receiving this kit was not planned, THE PERSON THAT GOT ME STARTED IN THIS HOBBY, WONDERFUL MR. KILIAN Gave me this kit today.
YOU ARE AWESOME MR KILIAN!
The P-38 is arguably the best... Forget that, it is THE BEST fighter of world war two, and is epically AWESOME!
Squishyp38
The comet kits were much better in both design and quality than the Guillows ones, or many of the UK made kits. They are quite rare in the UK but I have a couple and they are very good. Comet died, Guillows goes on, go figure....
That is a very desirable kit. Still brings a decent price on Ebay.
Make sure you can get reprints of the patterns for the formers and ribs.
IF not, photocopy those sheets before you start cutting out parts.
Scigs,
I really like the "paint" scheme you chose. Color stripes/border on natural tissue. That is similar to a lot of aircraft from that era. There would be painted stripes on natural metal. This was typical on Cessna 195's, 140, 170, of course the Ercoupes and many others.
Squish,
Since Guillow now owns the Comet line of kits I think you ought to start a separate build thread for your Ercoupe. I see that Scigs30 has a downloadable copy of the Ercoupe printwood. Might prove useful later if you get a copy for yourself. Have you thought about a color scheme, yet?